Saved By Grace, After All We Can Do

Are we saved by grace or works? The interplay between these concepts is important to understand, and potentially devastating to get wrong. Nephi’s phrase “saved by grace after all we can do” has confused latter-day gentiles for centuries. What does “after all we can do” even mean? What can someone do to “qualify” for grace? Who’s the recipient of the grace of Jesus Christ?

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Saved by Grace “After All We Can Do” – 00:01

Latter-day Saints are notorious for maintaining lists of stuff to do, in order to achieve “active” (righteous) status. Callings, ministering, service projects, attending meetings, paying tithing, obeying leaders, temple, genealogy, fasting, missions, marriage, having kids, baking cookies. The list goes on. Unfortunately, this sometimes leads to burn-out, a spike in faith crises, depression and in extreme (but not uncommon) cases, a higher-than-usual suicide rate. It’s a high price to pay for many, but not all. Some absolutely love the sense of accomplishment this lifestyle can offer.

Perhaps the most common verse cited for explaining how we access the grace of Christ is the following scripture. Sing along. You know the words.

What Does “All We Can Do” Mean? – 1:29

That highlighted part of the verse above echoes throughout chapels, institute classrooms, correlation committee meetings and zone conferences world-wide. The common interpretation? We need to do everything we possibly can first, and only then, we can expect grace (and salvation).

That common interpretation above turns into a plea for even more works if we’re not careful. That interpretation simply can’t be right. King Benjamin said that if we served God 24/7 with our whole souls, it still wouldn’t be enough. We’d be unprofitable servants, requiring grace from our Master.

People often skim over the most important part of the “after all we can do” verse, if not skip it altogether. It’s the first half of the verse, not the last half. Let’s read the whole thing, this time paying more attention to what comes before that phrase:

Reconciled to God – 21:07

In that last verse, Nephi states that everything he and the prophets do is in hopes that we (his audience) will do two things:

1. Believe in Christ
2. Be reconciled to God

Nephi focused his works (quite the “to-do list” I’m sure) on the goal of getting his people to do those two simple things. However, these two things must come first, before we can rightfully assume that saving grace works. Both items on the list always fall within our own power, control and initiative. There’s no amount of God’s grace that can violate your agency and transform a willful unbeliever into a reconciled saint. Belief is a choice, just like our efforts to reconcile ourselves with God. Nephi is talking about works here, in addition to grace.

Our willingness to believe and our will to obey God is a voluntarily sacrifice. These are the “works” of the gospel that only we can do. And, as we’ll explore later… are “all we can do.”

“Reconcile Yourselves to the Will of God” – 25:49

It may be tempting to say at this point something like, “even belief in Christ and reconciliation to God are His gifts.” For whatever reason, some people have a problem with the notion that there are things that God cannot give us or do for us. But Nephi seems to believe it’s our responsibility to reconcile “ourselves” to God.

Did you catch that? Notice he doesn’t say “let God reconcile Himself to you” or “receive reconciliation from God.” Rather, he tells us to do the work ourselves, by giving our wills over to God, and not to the devil or to the flesh. This is not passive voice, but active voice, and a command.

Nephi confirms twice that yes, we obtain salvation only by grace. No doubt about it. However, that’s only after we perform our own “work” of reconciliation to God and His will.

What Does “Reconciled to God” Mean? – 23:24

Let’s start with the word “reconcile” itself. Here are the definitions from 1828, the approximate time frame during which the translation of Nephi’s writings occurred:

All four of the definitions are descriptions that fit a repentant soul seeking to align to the will of God. The roots in Greek mean in a literal sense is to “call back into union” which shares the same conceptual meaning as the word atonement: to make formerly estranged parties at one and together in unison once again.

Reconciled Unto God Through the Atonement – 25:12

Nephi’s brother Jacob emphasized this point also in his exhortation to his people, pointing them to the atonement as the means of reconciliation.

Jacob states that those who first reconcile themselves to God will then receive certain status and blessings with God. Among such, he states that Jesus will present us to God “as the first-fruits of Christ.” The first fruits of God are they who are spiritually reborn of God and made His sons and daughters.

Reconciled to Thy Brother, Then Come Unto Me – 30:50

Reconciliation is so important that Jesus taught at least twice that it comes before we seek to come unto Him. He states that if we even desire to come unto him, we need to first seek reconciliation with our brothers and sisters. Then we can come unto Him with a full purpose of heart and He will receive us.

Prophets seek diligently to persuade us to believe in Christ and reconcile ourselves to God. However, Jesus taught the people to also reconcile themselves to each other. It’s a commandment, and an integral part of his instruction to his followers (at least those who “shall come unto me, or shall desire to come unto me“).

Strong interpersonal relationships thrive where reconciliation is a natural and regular effort. Marriages, relationships with kids, coworkers, etc are all strengthened as we recognize discord between us and work to minimize it. Our relationship with God works in a similar way.

The Ministry of Reconciliation: Our Work & His Glory – 32:27

In the Book of Moses, God says “this is my work and my glory—to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man” (Moses 1:39). If that’s God’s work and glory, have you ever wondered what ours is?

There are several commandments and many teachings found in the scriptures for various things we could be doing, pending our circumstance. However, Paul summarized “our work” and our ministry in this simple concept: The ministry of reconciliation.

Paul writes to the Corinthians:

Reconciled to God is a Broken Heart & Contrite Spirit – 38:15

To the remnant 2,500 Nephites, Christ explained exactly what he wants from His people:

Jesus doesn’t want endless Pharisaical “busy-bodyism” from us. He never asked for a laundry list of one-size-fits-all mechanical works or the commandments of men to dominate our schedules. What he really wants is our hearts and our wills. Voluntarily. Remember, it was Jesus that empathetically plead with the tired Jews:

Obeying the Lord’s Voice – Better than Sacrifice – (not in presentation)

Although Jesus fulfilled the law of Moses when he introduced this new covenant, He preferred the broken heart and contrite spirit even back in old times. Everlasting covenant means just that. Everlasting. It’s always been this way, even when the children of Israel received a preparatory law.

The prophet Samuel inquired as to whether performing a sacrifice brought the Lord as much delight as one’s willingness to obey the voice of the Lord.

More Mary, Less Martha – 40:08

Jesus warned the ever-busy and “chosen” Jews with a caution, that applies to the rest of us, especially the Latter-day Saints today:

In other words, these people professed to draw near to god (reconcile), but their hearts were still estranged (not broken) and distant from the Lord. A perfect example of doing “works” without the grace-enabling reconciliation. Let us beware of the “works” that we think are necessary for righteousness, but are nothing the Lord cares about or has asked of us.

When burned-out Martha was focused on cooking, cleaning, serving and preparing the tables for the ward potluck dinner, she complained that her sister Mary was slacking in her righteousness. She asked Jesus to tell Mary to help her with the busy work. Jesus replied:

Conclusion – 44:40

Believe in Christ, and reconcile yourself to the will of God through Jesus Christ. Granted, reconciling ourselves to the will of God can include a wide variety of “things” that He may (or may not) ask of us. The good news is that in our efforts to reconcile the differences between our will and God’s all the Lord requires is “the heart and a willing mind” (D&C 64:34).

Remember, Nephi worked diligently that we might believe in Christ and reconcile ourselves to God. He closed his record with a stern, but invitational warning to the latter-day Gentiles:

If we really believe in Christ and His abilities to save through His grace, then let our works and our ministry always focus on reconciliation. When all is said and done, that’s literally “all we can do.”